We have been working hard over the last month to prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. One area of challenge has been the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) for our health care workers and first responders. To date, we have been able to access some supplies on the open market and one shipment from the National Strategic Stockpile. An area of additional focus has been finding unopened and new PPE that may be sitting on shelves and could be donated to help our effort.
Snohomish County's Department of Emergency Management, working with our Department of Parks and Recreation, lead the effort to organize donation sites and recently shared the great success of the project. Our community donated more than 32,000 pieces of PPE in a very short time!
Since we had such success, our donation drive will continue through Friday, April 10. Please help spread the word and share the image below.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I know that information is a key part of our response, since our residents need to know what's happening to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Therefore, we have established a number of websites and are organizing two events for the media each week. You can watch my recent briefings below:
This morning, Jason Biermann, Snohomish County’s Director of Emergency Management, participated in a news conference with Dr. Chris Spitters, the county’s health officer.
A video of today's event can be found here.
You can find a wide range of information about COVID-19's impacts on our community and our response here.
Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers and County Council Chair Nate Nehring announced a whole-of-government, countywide approach to help local businesses and the workforce. This effort provides a seamless and innovative system synthesizing two key areas that are critical foundations for recovery: businesses and workforce. Building off a previous announcement establishing the Office of Economic Recovery and Resiliency and the Economic and Workforce Recovery Task Force, the Future Workforce Alliance will work hand-in-hand with these entities to ensure Snohomish County’s economic response and recovery mechanisms are coordinated to be able to move swiftly and have the flexibility to adjust to the ever-evolving environment.
“COVID-19 has hit our community hard. It has not only threatened our health and wellbeing, it has disrupted every aspect of our lives including our jobs, our businesses, and our entire economy,” said Executive Somers. “The Future Workforce Alliance, in tandem with the Economic and Workforce Recovery Task Force, will serve critical roles to ensure the voices of our business community are incorporated into regional, national, and international recovery efforts. We are working tirelessly on behalf of our businesses to lay the groundwork and develop a rapidly deployable plan for our recovery. Working together, we will get through this.”
“We must aggressively pursue economic recovery for our businesses and workers impacted by COVID-19,” said Chair Nehring. “We want to create a system to prepare now so that when we are able to get our economic system fully functioning again we will be ready to act quickly.”
To learn more, go here.
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